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Women working across France were urged to down tools at 4.34pm on Monday as part of a protest against the salary gap between male and female staff.

The call had been issued by women's rights group Les Glorieuses, which has decided that enough is enough and that average wage disparity between men and women needs to be addressed in France.

Inspired by similar hugely successful action in Iceland last month, the group had urged women to stop working at 4.34pm on November 7th, because according to their calculations, after this point women will be effectively working voluntarily.

It was not clear how well the call was heeded by women in France but the twitter hashtag #7novembre16h34 was trending top on Monday. In Place de la Republique where women workers had been urged to gather around 200 had turned up by around 5pm.

Miserable weather in Paris may have affected the protest for gender-equal wages. Maybe 200 people at République. pic.twitter.com/3ipgagfcHT

The group noted on its Facebook page that the stakes are high if every working woman essentially goes on strike, with 13.8 million women registered as working in France's work force (or 48 percent of the total).

And every bit helps, of course, not least considering that a recent report from the World Economic Forum predicted that the salary gap won't disappear until the year 2186.

The movement has won support from France's education minister Najat Belkacem who tweeted that "the fight for pay equality involves the whole of society. We cannot wait until 2186."

Women's rights group Osez le Feminisme is supporting the movement and has called on French companies to be fined if they do not respect the laws around equal pay.